Bongiorno and her husband, Rudy, a retired electrician, recruited and stayed in touch with investors in the old neighborhood who held accounts called “RuAnn,” [you can say that again] according to the employee, who requested anonymity. “RuAnn” is short for Rudy and Annette, the employee said. An account statement reviewed by Bloomberg News had the initials RU. [1] Even Lucky Santangelo would have been mortified just finding herself in a book with elements like that.  RU the day? Have a Nice Day!

Arguably, this process involves sales price fraud, a seller concession (in contrast to the claimed "charitable gift"), unlicensed lending, money laundering, and defrauding the Federal government (the FHA has no way of knowing which loans have "real" downpayments and which are being paid by the seller through markups). The FHA, IRS, FBI, GAO, and Congress itself have all ruled against or reported critically on this practice. It’s enough to make you wonder if the Mob is involved. [1] Hard hitting Doom friend Aaron, founder of the Implode-O-Meter site, like twist here at Doom, has been a long-time critic of residential…
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Foreign central banks boosted their purchases of U.S. Treasury and agency bonds in the latest week, assuaging concerns about the possibility that overseas demand would wane, Federal Reserve data showed on Thursday. [1] That was outstanding. Notice that the author byline for this week’s Reuters report [1] has migrated to the top of the article, and the author is waxing lyrical about the optimistic tale of the numbers. Indeed, at a robust $10.794 rise in total obligations held by foreign central banks, almost equally split between buys of treasuries and agencies, support for the new US administration’s spending plans could…
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It’s Friday, and remember how Grandma told you that you should save for a rainy day? Well check this out from CNN. Those of you that followed that advice are apparently messing things up for the rest of us:

  O.K., I don’t actually know if the platinum was in his pocket, but Christopher Warren, the mortgage fraudster who posted his online confession on the internet, was arrested at the Canadian border. [Thanks to CPGone for the update!] SACRAMENTO — An international fugitive in a $100 million mortgage fraud scheme has been caught at the Canadian border with $1 million in Swiss bank certificates and $70,000 stuffed in his shoes, authorities said Wednesday. Christopher J. Warren also was carrying four ounces of platinum valued at more than $1,000 an ounce when he was arrested while re-entering the United States…
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Wow! If this is [sic] a pattern crack-up I don’t know what is. CBs pulling huge money outta thin air, breaking the buck in MMs, nationalization of corporate america, official announcement after announcement, huge volatility, sudden nationwide restrictions on short borrowing, Gold plummeting more than 15% in less than an hour, rocket ship recovery in DOW, banks not taking my calls today, trading floor guys I spoke to in virtual panic (screaming in the background). Can I just go back to Mayberry? Calculated Risk Commenter | 09.18.08 – 3:47 pm | [1] I pulled the above from near the end…
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American taxpayers have to spend billions on pork in our bailouts- we don’t care:  [Thanks L!]  

UPDATE: this story [3] seems to have the date corrected to a week later than I thought. It has several links and some further discussion. FURTHER UPDATE: Clic-the-pic to read full PBS news release on their major upcoming documentary on this. Twist sent this Fool story [1] along, which in turn referenced this YouTube [2] of an extract of a C-span interview with Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) Capital Markets Subcommittee Chair.  I’m not going to put up anything besides a partial transcript and yet another embed of this must-see video (the first 2 minutes is pretty dull ), but Doomers…
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In August 2007 David Walker, Comptroller General of the United States said, I would argue that the most serious threat to the United States is not someone hiding in a cave in Afghanistan or Pakistan, but our own fiscal irresponsibility.  

  Last night L forwarded me a Yahoo Finance article entitled: Fed’s Fisher says Fed independence must be ensured. It quoted Dallas Federal Reserve Chairman Richard Fischer: It is more important than ever that we maintain the independence of our central bank, keeping it free from being overridden by political considerations. I believe it vitally important that the Federal Reserve must be left alone to independently craft policies…to achieve financial stability and conduct monetary policy aimed at maximizing sustainable job creation without upsetting price stability. This brought to mind a question:

"What we’re essentially doing is creating the retail environment of the future. Imagine you walk in and instead of seeing printed materials it’s all digital screens." Those who have seen the movie Minority Report, in which Tom Cruise is tracked by adverts wherever he goes, won’t have to imagine too hard. [1] OK, so do I really need to look at the display over the cinnamon buns at the Lady Hammond Road Tim’s and see a promotion for their new hot chocolate in a mustache cup, thus reminding me yet again that Ann forget the trim last time? Does Tim’s…
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The first thing we do, lets kill all the golf resorts. In recent days, Peter Schiff’s idea that America needs to start saving is beginning to gain traction.  This implies that wasting resources is bad about now.  So it sounds like an ideal time to bring up cuts to the military. In Schiff’s world (and the real world) spending money comes at a cost — go figure!  Perhaps it’s time for every rice bowl and sacred cow in the Military Industrial Complex to stand up and be examined.  If the positive benefit to defence of any program doesn’t reach the…
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L forwarded info to me on an expo in China entitled America is for sale: It’s actually a chance for real estate sellers to try and sell developments and properties to the Chinese, but given our current economic problems, I wonder if we won’t end up selling more than that!

Schiff on Fox News on Feb. 5:

Tough times have got people doing strange things.  One Kentucky man has resorted to a pretty deperate measure to get "affordable housing": It was Wednesday morning when a man walked into a Stock Yards Bank on Mud Lane in far southern Jefferson County. He allegedly handed a teller a note demanding cash and indicating he was armed with a gun. "The teller complied with the suspect’s demand and the suspect had a seat and indicated he was going to wait for police," Mueller said. "He wouldn’t take the money." Mueller said when officers arrived, 38-year-old Edward Taylor Sutherland III raised…
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